Symantec Releases Top Ten Malware List for EMEA in 2008

EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) Internet Security Threat Report published by Symantec reveals the ten leading malware for the region in 2008.

Brisv, a sort of Trojan program, topped the list while the prime country reporting the malware, according to the report of Symantec, was Poland.

Security experts stated that malware infection occurs when users open insecure video or music files on suspicious websites. The moment the malware gets installed into the PC, it starts slowing and gradually inactivating the security applications. It then links the user's web browser to malicious websites that promote fake anti-spyware software hosting Trojan.Brisv.A!inf.

Symantec has placed Tidserv, a sort of backdoor Trojan, at the second spot in its list. The Trojan was detected by Symantec for the first time in September 2008. The top two countries reporting of this Trojan were the UK and Germany at first and second spots respectively. This Trojan gives access of the system to remote hackers, installs extra malware as well as displays fake promotional advertisements.

Third leading malicious code is the Auraax worm, which affected the large user community in EMEA and was discovered in November 2008. As per Symantec, Auraax spreads through detachable drives such as USB drives as well as via network shares. It is also able in downloading malicious content from the Internet. The leading country that reported this malware was Netherlands.

Further, Trojan Blusod has been ranked fourth while Trojan Spakrab has been rated fifth in the list released Symantec.

Security experts note that Blusod has an interesting characteristic. It downloads and executes joke screensaver onto the contaminated system and disables the System Restore of the victim's PC. While Spakrab is reported to be a Trojan that provides a backdoor entry to the scammers and sends spam from the infected system.

Ircbrute, Mebroot, Brojack, and Hatihati were among the other top malicious code listed in Symantec's report for EMEA, and have been given corresponding rankings of sixth, seventh, eight and ninth. From these malwares, Trojan Mebroot was first detected from Italy and creates a lot of menace.

Finally, the tenth spot has been acquired by Koobface, a malicious worm that was first reported from the UK. The worm modifies the settings of social networking sites to add malicious links to the user profiles.

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